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{{trope}}
[[File:station-
{{quote|'''Announcer''': 91.5 KFLQ Albuquerque, with the following translators: K209BC, 89.7 FM, San Antonio, Colorado; K297AE, 107.3 FM, Ruidoso, New Mexico; K212BB, 90.3 FM, Alamogordo, New Mexico; and K211DW, 90.1 FM, Tucumcari, New Mexico. |[http://www.tophour.com Tophour.com] radio [http://www.tophour.com/audio/Albuquerque-Santa%20Fe%20NM/fm0915_2002-03_kflq_tnoel.mp3 Station Ident]}}
{{quote|''No sports, no talk, no information''
''[[Dumbass DJ|For mindless chatter, we're your station!]]''
''KBBL!''|'''[[The Simpsons]]'''}}
You're reading [[All
In broadcasting, it is common for stations to give some kind of announcement as to what station you are on. This typically happens just before a feature begins. Many network mascots and logos are born in idents. They also may contain a theme tune, carry a common motif, or carry no common element at all. Early idents, which were basic and fairly static, can accidentally be [[Nightmare Fuel]] to younger viewers.
[[American Television Stations|American broadcast stations]] are required, under federal law, to declare their call sign and city of license at least once an hour, as close to the top of the hour as is reasonably possible.<ref>If the community of licence is not the primary city served, for legal reasons the city named on the station's licence is always the first of the (often) multiple places listed: "This is WWNY-TV 7 Carthage-Watertown" indicates the licence is Carthage. The community of licence is not easy for a broadcaster to change later, as the US FCC is reticent to deprive some small village of "their" only hometown station. If WNET snagged the last spot on the VHF dial by acquiring an existing [[Joisey]] station, the ident stays with "WNET 13 Newark" initially and only mentions NYC later.</ref> Obviously radio stations have to announce, a TV station may give it in audio, visual or both. Other, less-common options include a digital TV station identifying itself in the on-channel programme guide (using PSIP) or a radioamateur station identifying in [[Morse Code]]. Note this only applies to ''
In recent years these have waned in the United States, though a few notable channels like HBO soldiered on. The major TV networks have less need for this practice over the years, thanks to persistent onscreen logos, announcing their brand at the end of every promo, and the fact that idents eat up commercial time. Typically, Top of the Hour announcements come in the form of a blurb for the Late Night [[Talk Show]] guest list or a new episode of a primetime drama. Local stations' afternoon and late news slots are a different matter, as individual station screen bugs aren't widespread in syndicated shows (big three affiliates usually stray from them, but [[FOX]], [[The CW|CW]] and [[My Network TV]] stations don't).
[[Canada]] follows a similar pattern to the US, but its regulations are a bit more lax as network-owned stations often simply identify with network name and city ("This is CTV Ottawa") instead of the legal callsign ("This is CJOH-TV 13...").
Idents are still quite popular in British television. [[The BBC]] has a fairly consistent design of idents across its TV channels, as does ITV and Channel 4. British idents often have a [[Hey, It's That Voice!|continuity announcer]], a disembodied voice that informs you of the next program or two and whether you might want to put the kids to bed for this one. British idents aim to entertain or mystify rather than simply inform, and sometimes their onscreen display may be relevant to the content of the show to follow.
Shorter versions, which tend to appear in the space between programmes and adverts, are known as Stings, or [[Break Bumper
Some stations come up with variants for holidays and special events.
Compare with a [[Vanity Plate]], which shows up at the tail end of a show and usually identifies the production company instead of the broadcaster. Another form of broadcaster identification would be the [[Radio Jingle]]. A fictional network identifier, for a CNN-style news channel, might be [[Alphabet News Network]].
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Could overlap with [[Continuity Announcement]] in the early days of television.
{{examples}}
Many examples can be found at the [http://www.idents.tv idents.tv] blog, which covers this kind of stuff with a vengeance. Audio clips of U.S. and Canadian radio station identifications can be heard at [http://www.tophour.com Top of the Hour]. [http://www.theidentgallery.com The Ident Gallery] has videos of some of the British ones mentioned here.
* NBC's peacock and chimes were common elements in idents. The peacock dates back to the debut of colour television, while the six-feathered version (by [http://www.cgstudionyc.com/ Chermayeff and Geismar]) debuted in 1986.
** Before [[The Tonight Show]] during Jay's first tenure, ''"NBC, America's late night leader!"''
* CBS has a stylised eye as its station identification logo. It is the longest tenured network TV logo in the United States, debuting in 1951. It was designed by [[wikipedia:William Golden|William Golden]].
* ABC
** The "Start Here" slogan has been superseded with "America's Network" as the branding.
* HBO's 1980s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cobKjqWOcFw "Feature Presentation"] is almost certainly the most recognized American ident of the cable/satellite age, which is a bit odd when you consider it's a pay channel to which a lot of people don't subscribe. A 21st century refresh, by Pittard Sullivan, made an even more complex city in CGI that is zoomed through before the message appears and a quickened version of the theme plays.
* [[James Earl Jones|This... is CNN.]]
* [[Nickelodeon]], in the 1980s and well into the 1990s, [http://vimeo.com/2703001 created dozens of animated and live-action station IDs] with its amorphous orange logo in various shapes. The most famous set of such idents featured the vocal contributions of Eugene Pitt and his doo-wop group The Jive Five, who originated the classic "Nick Nick Nick" jingle still in use today. The logo of a quarter-century was dispensed of in 2009, however.
** There was the pinball that bounced around the world, before they dropped the blob on us in 1984.
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* [[The CW]] has used the since its debut, which was designed by the aforementioned Troika Design Group.
* [[PBS]] has changed its network logo [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ey1Sl5Wk8 many times over the years]. The first "real" logo for the network, used from 1971 to 1984, had a stylized "PBS", with the "P" resembling a human head. This logo was designed by Herb Lubalin, whose best known work is probably the ITC Avant Garde Gothic [[Useful Notes/Fonts|typeface]]. The current logo first came about in 1984, depicting the "P" from the previous logo flipped to the right and with two other profiles (one is formed through negative space); this rendition was designed by Chermayeff & Geismar, also known for the Chase logo and the aforementioned 1986 NBC peacock. This logo was placed into a circle in 1998, and has stayed there since.
** PBS Kids had "The P-Pals" from 1993-1998, which were more cartoon versions of the "P" logo. Their slogan was the same as the regular station, but sung as, "This is, PBS!". The loud voices were considered [[Nightmare Fuel]] when they were still on air, but now a classic for any `90s kid. (And for the record, Mark Marrek, who created the P-Pals (so to speak) created [[
** I remember back in the 50s, the predecessor of PBS having three animated kids, one playing a drum, marching across the screen from left to right for kids programs. I think it was National Educational Television (NET) at that time.
* You're listening to [[Celestia Radio]]: All pony, all the time.
* [[The Disney Channel]] had some [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vyudH-0er0 fairly] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOEx1ZbXttE creative ones] from the 80's through the early 90's.
* "It's six o'clock in Central Europe. From AP, UPI, and the major American networks, the news is next, on AFN." (U.S. Armed Forces Network; in South Korea it was AFKN)
Much like America, Canada does not use long British-style idents, but tends to use shorter bumpers too. However, there are still themed bumpers that serve this purpose.
* CTV's overall design since 1998 has frequently featured red, green, and blue ribbons around Canadian landscapes (representing the three shapes in its logo, and its three major divisions at the time; entertainment, news, and sports. Though CTV shuttered its own sports division when it bought TSN), often attached to the back of the CTV logo itself. Other bumpers at the time featured personalities of CTV's programming interacting with the logo.
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* Toronto independent station CITY-TV has probably one of the best known examples in Canada of this, featuring looks at various locations in and around the city (emphasizing its slogan, "Everywhere"), famously voiced by Mark Dailey.
* BBC One's idents depicted a hot-air balloon in the likeness of a globe from 1997 to 2002, as did other BBC projects. They switched to a series known as ''Rhythm & Movement'' in 2002, featuring people in dancing or moving in synch with a heavy dose of red in their clothing or on the set, and all of these idents had variations on the same tune. These were often attacked by viewers as boring and [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]] due to the number of different races and cultures featured. The present theme, used since 2006, is round objects or things moving in a circle. Some of these are also used on BBC America, albeit in truncated forms. The hot-air balloon and Rhythm & Movement idents were done by Lambie-Nairn, and the "circles" idents were done by Red Bee Media.
** Before the balloon, [[BBC 1]] used various renditions of a rotating globe. The mechanical "Mirror Globe" was used from 1969 to 1985, the "Computer Originated World" from 1985 to 1991, and Lambie-Nairn did a spruced up CGI globe containing the numeral "1" that was in use from 1991 to 1997; its exit coincided with a massive revamp of the BBC's identity. [[BBC 1]] getting a new look (and slightly different name) wasn't at all hinted at on the 1991 globe's final night (
*** Actually the 1991 globe is supposedly a multi-layered live action ident, though it probably has some CGI.
** Even older BBC idents can be seen in ''[[Life On Mars]]'' and ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]''. They appear on those two series as such thanks to [[Retraux]].
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* Digital Freeview comedy channel Dave (formerly UKTV Gold 2) has a group of people engaged in non-sequitur hijinks in and around a mansion before a show begins.
* [[The ABC]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb-NeGOS_3I&feature=related logo] is probably the most famous of our lot, being a distinctive "squiggle", created to reference the network's radio origins. It is the only logo to have survived virtually intact since its inception, with the only major changes being the general design (it's now best explained as being a twisted loop of metal pipe, and now has several slightly differing versions, depending on which ABC station you are watching).
* The [[Nine Network]]'s logo has, over the years, remained basically intact, but whether or not it features nine dots next to the "9" is a matter of the era.
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* The [[SBS]] logo has also undergone several varieties. Early versions of the logo incorporated some kind of ball, but the logo used throughout the 90s involved five pointy ellipses (resembling overturned kayaks). The version from the 1990s used some positively ingenious idents, with indigenous (or microscopic) objects ranging in number from one to four appearing. The current logo is a variant on that logo.
* BBC One's idents are frequently the target of [[Take That]] on other shows, sometimes [[Self-Deprecation|on the BBC itself]], either as a statement on the quality of the shows or on the network's branding image. As the channel introduced the ''Movement & Rhythm'' idents, BBC Three's adult toon show ''[[Monkey Dust]]'' frequently made fun of them. Another comedy spoofed the circles motif by plastering the BBC One name over footage from a colonoscopy camera.
** In a similar vein, topical live-action comedy satire ''[[Dead Ringers (TV series)|Dead Ringers]]'' used to occasionally parody the idents' announcer, featuring the original ident with a new comical commentary.
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'''Announcer:''' It's 8 o'clock and time for the news now on BBC Two, with on BBC One, me telling you this.
'''Announcer:''' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}NJPdZsgeCco Well, it's five past nine], and nearly time for six past nine. On BBC Two it will shortly be 6½ minutes past nine. Later on this evening it will be 10 o'clock, and at 10:30 we'll be joining BBC Two in time for 10:33. And don't forget tomorrow, when it'll be [[Overly Long Gag|9:20]]. Those of you who missed 8:45 on Friday will be able to see it again this Friday at a quarter to nine. }}
*** Another Python opening uses the world-famous [[wikipedia:Thames Television|Thames]] ident in its original context, as their continuity announcer runs down the station line-up before disparaging the BBC fare that is next.
** BBC Scotland football sketch show ''Only An Excuse?'' ended one episode in the balloon era with the balloon forming the bald head of Scottish football comentator Chick Young.
* The ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'' [[Theme Tune]] is meant to resemble this.
** The video to the credits even looks like an old community ident for a TV affiliate until the roll call begins.
* When the Earth [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blows up]] at the end of ''[[The Goodies|Goodies]]'' episode "Earthanasia", it cuts to the BBC globe ident. Then that blows up, too.
* ''[[The Kenny Everett Video Show]]'' once parodied the logo for Thames Television by replacing the London landmarks in it with bare breasts, and declaring "Thames Television: The network with knockers!"
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Useful Notes/The United States]]
[[Category:Paratext]]
[[Category:
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